Match made in the dep. of distribution

Chapter 1: The crazy good

It was early in the morning and Daniel was walking to school. The school was just two blocks away from his home so he never took the bus. Winter was ending, but it was still cold outside, which didn't help him stay awake. All he could think about was his bed and a pile of blankets while Akriel and Degdror were hovering around him bickering. They have been at it all night until he drove them out of his room last night around three o'clock.

With all the bickering, Daniel wished that he couldn't hear what Akriel and Degdror were arguing about. About halfway to school Daniel stopped, turned around towards Akriel and Degdror and said. "Stop it. You two have been arguing since yesterday. This has to stop. Akriel, you are a good spirit and you are older, you should be smarter and just let it go."

"Let it go? Are you out of your mind?" Akriel said.

"Yeah, just let it go. You have been arguing all night. Nothing can be so important." Daniel said.

Akriel and Degdror both gasped in shock.

"This is important. The result could have cosmic consequences." Akriel said.

"Then let's hear it. What's the argument about?" Daniel asked.

"You have a staircase in your house that leads up to the second floor. I say that it has eleven steps and Degdror says it has twelve, based on that the floor of the second floor counts as a stair. I say it's thirteen because the floor on the second floor is not a step." Akriel said.

"That's what you have been arguing about?" David asked looking at them like he was looking at two monkeys scratching their butts.

"Let's put it this way. To climb the stairs, to the second floor, you have to climb eleven steps. That means you lift your legs eleven times. But if you want to actually walk on the second floor, you have to lift your legs one more time and that means you have to climb another step.

Following that logic, the staircase has twelve stairs. Argument over. Are we clear?" David said and looked at them.

Degdror was sticking out his snake-like tongue towards Akriel and making fun of him. Degdror actually made fireworks explode around him as he did his victory dance as Akriel hovered, his hands crossed, sulking.

'Cosmic importance. How did I get stuck with these two buffoons?' Daniel thought, turned around and continued walking to school. 'Only one more year and I'll be left with only one of them. Maybe then it'll be quieter.' That sounded like a dream come through but Daniel still didn't know which one to choose.

After a few steps, Daniel heard them arguing again behind him. He gripped the tip of his nose, between the eyes, and sighed. He turned around and angrily asked. "What are you arguing about now?"

"Ketchup." Degdror said.

"You are arguing about ketchup?" Daniel asked with an irritated look on his face.

"Yes, I claim that ketchup is jam because tomatoes are, technically, fruits. Akriel doesn't agree." Degdror said.

"Just... Just keep me out of this one guys. If you don't stop arguing when we get to school I swear that both of you will spend the next eight hours with duct tape over your mouths." Daniel said, gave them a cold look and started walking to school.

Every human got a good and a bad spirit when they were born. The humans had both spirits until they were eighteen when their subconscious mind chooses one of the spirits as their companion for the rest of their life. Every human could see the spirits of other humans, but they couldn't hear what the other spirits were talking about. Only the person to whom the spirit was attached to could hear what the spirit was saying.

Most of the people's sub subconscious mind chooses the good spirit. Good spirits showed others that the humans were good, because there was an unspoken stigma about evil spirits. If you had an evil spirit as your companion that meant that, you had evil things in your mind and most people didn't even want to talk to you. Even finding a job with an evil spirit as a companion was practically impossible.
Not all bad spirits were the same. There were the truly bad spirits that manipulated their humans into doing evil things, some bad spirits that enjoyed giving bad advice to their humans, others brought misfortune to their humans and then there were evil spirits like Degdror. He was a joker, he liked messing with Daniel, playing pranks on him. He did give him some bad advice from time to time and laughed when Daniel ended up looking like a fool, but he wasn't truly evil, he was just a prankster.

People with good spirits as their companions didn't have such problems. Good spirits were also different as evil spirits. There were those that also manipulated their humans to turn completely good, do everything to help others and nothing for themselves. Some good spirits gave good advice to their humans, others just brought luck to their humans.

However, something was wrong with Akriel. Akriel didn't act like a normal good spirit. When Daniel was little and his parents bought him a toy, he always talked about how Daniel didn't deserve anything, because he did nothing good, nothing to help other people. In school, when Daniel was eating his lunch, Akriel sometimes started yelling at him that he was selfish for not sharing his food with others. He even yelled that all the students in the cafeteria were selfish for not sharing their food with hungry people from other countries. One time as winter was starting Daniel passed a mother walking with her child. They were eating ice cream and Akriel told Daniel to take their ice cream and throw it in the garbage because it was cold and they could get sick.

Daniel was worried that if he kept Akriel as his companion he would be making the wrong choice.

One day, six months before Daniel's eighteenth birthday, Akriel acted out. The three of them were in a store, Daniel was buying a new charger for his phone and Akriel started flying around the store as if he was upset.

 "What's wrong Akriel?" Daniel asked.

"Everything! Don't you see it?" Akriel yelled upset.

 Daniel and Degdror exchanged a confused look and Daniel said "No. What do you mean?"

"This is a horror shop! A horror shop I tell you! Humans living in poverty built all of this in inhumane conditions! And you are just standing here, not doing anything to stop it!" Akriel yelled.

"Calm down Akriel." Daniel said.

"Calm down? How can I calm down when there are humans suffering all around the world and you are doing nothing? Nothing!!! You are just standing there selfishly thinking about yourself!" Akriel was yelling. He was really upset so Daniel bought a charger and headed straight home. All the way home Akriel was yelling about how humans are selfish and cruel.

"What are we going to do?" Daniel asked Degdror.

"I don't think that Akriel will calm down. I think he lost his marbles. I'll go to the spirit realm and tell them about this. I'll be back in a bit." Degdror said and Daniel continued to head home.

When Daniel and Akriel got home, Akriel was still ranting about how people were selfish beings and how they don't deserve to live. Half an hour later Degdror returned from the spirit realm with a spirit in a white doctor's coat.

"What happened?" Daniel asked Degdror silently.

"I told them about what happened today with Akriel and they asked me a bunch of questions about his past behavior. I told them about the strange good things and advices he was giving you so the doc came with me." Degdror said.

As Daniel and Degdror were talking, the spirit doctor sat down with Akriel and listened to what Akriel was saying. He asked him a bunch of questions and when they were done, he took out a small phone from his coat and called someone. Two nurses with a small wheelchair appeared out of nowhere and the spirit doctor came towards Daniel and Degdror.

"It's good you came to us. We have seen this happen before to older good spirits. When good spirits get older than two thousand and five hundred years they have lived with too many humans and too many times seen how cruel mother nature can be." The spirit doctor said.
As the spirit doctor was talking the two nurses put a small crazy jacket on Akriel, buckled the leather straps and put him in a small wheelchair while Akriel was yelling that the world will end and that evil will win and kill us all.

"I'm afraid we'll have to take him away to treat him. I'll put in a request to the spirit distribution center to assign you a new good spirit." The spirit doctor said and gave him a card. "When you want to check the status of your case you just say the word on the card and you will get information on the status of your case." The spirit doctor flew towards the nurses and Akriel and they were gone.

Daniel and Degdror sat in Daniel's room, confused.

"They took him away." Daniel said baffled.

"Yeah, I'm goanna miss the old fart." Degdror said.

"I have no good spirit." Daniel said. "I'll be eighteen in six months and I don't have a good spirit."

"So what? You have me." Degdror said.

"But. It's unnatural. The others will look at me like I'm a freak." Daniel said looking at Degdror with a frightened look on his face.

Chapter 2: The evil good

Since that day, people at his school looked at Daniel differently. The ones who didn't know him very well thought that his companion was the evil spirit and didn't want to have anything to do with him. Others from his class, who knew that Daniel wasn't eighteen, looked at him as if something was wrong with him. Even his best friend Peter looked at him as if something was wrong with him and didn't want to hang out with him, even after Daniel explained what happened to Akriel.

Two months passed and Daniel still didn't get a good spirit. He took the card the spirit doctor gave him and read the word from the card. "Okabiah."

"Spirit distribution center. How may I help you?" Daniel heard a woman's voice coming from nowhere in particular.

"Ahh, yes. Hello. My name is Daniel Ray. My good spirit Akriel was taken two months ago and I didn't receive a new good spirit. Can you check the status of my case?" Daniel asked.

"Sure thing hun. Just a sec." The woman said and Daniel heard the sound of tying.

"We still don't have a good spirit that matches your personality. There is a shortage of good spirits because a lot of humans choose them as companions." The woman said.

"I don't want to sound impatient, but I'm turning eighteen in four months and don't have a good spirit. Can you give me any good spirit?" Daniel asked.

"That's not how it works. The good spirit must be compatible with you. If it isn't and your subconscious mind chooses the good spirit for your companion both of you will be miserable for the rest of your lives. Do you want that?" The woman asked.

"No, I don't." Daniel replied.

"Be patient. We will find a good spirit for you. Thank you for calling" The woman said and her voice disappeared.

"Don't worry. If they don't find a good spirit I can be your good spirit." Degdror said with a smile.

"Yeah? Can you give good advice?" Daniel asked.

"Of course I can. I've been listening to the old fart giving you advice for seventeen years." Degdror said with pride.

"Ok then, give me good advice." Daniel said.

"Don't chew with your mouth full." Degdror said seriously.

"It's don't talk with your mouth full, not chew." Daniel said.

"Hmmm... That doesn't make sense." Degdror said confused.

"Try again, but think about good advice this time." Daniel said.

"Ok, here goes. Look before you cross the road." Degdror said smiling.

"Hah! That actually is good advice. I'm impressed. But it's advice for children. Try to give me good advice for a grown-up." Daniel said.

"Woooohu!! I gave good advice. I don't know what it means but it's still good advice. So, advice for a grown-up." Degdror was floating and thinking. "I know! You don't look at the teeth of a horse that someone gave you." Degdror said and looked at Daniel as if a miracle just happened.

"Ok, you were close this time. It's actually you don't look at the mouth of a horse that someone gave you." Daniel said.

"Why mouth? That doesn't make sense. Teeth make more sense because they are ugly. I mean it could work, but teeth sound better." Degdror said.

"What do you think that advice means?" Daniel said.

"That you don't look at the teeth of a horse because they are ugly." Degdror said. "What else should it mean?"

"It means that you don't look at how expensive the gift someone gave you is and to just be grateful that you got a gift." Daniel explained.

"That makes no sense at all." Degdror said seriously. "I would want to know how expensive the gift is. If somebody spent a small amount of money on my gift that means I'm not important to him. If he spent more money it means I'm important to him." Degdror said.

"But some people don't have a lot of money so if they spend a small amount of money it can mean that you are important to them. You understand?" Daniel explained.

"Ohhhh... I see what you're getting at. You don't want to spend money on my gifts." Degdror said.

"Aaaaaarrrrr... I can't do this. I'm starting to sound like my mom." Daniel threw himself on the bed, cowered his head with a pillow and screamed.

"Ha ha! You're an old lady! Ha ha!" Degdror was sitting on the desk, laughing and pointing at Daniel.

Daniel's phone rang and he put it under the pillow to his ear and answered. "Hey Tiff, what's up? ... Because my head is under my pillow. ... Because Degdror made me depressed. ... Birthday party, yeah. ... When does it start? ... Eight, ok, I'll be there." Daniel jumped out of bed and looked at the time. He had two and a half hours and he didn't have a present.

"I need to get ready." Daniel said, got dressed, looked at himself in the mirror and changed his clothes. When he was satisfied with the clothes he picked he looked at the time. He had just an hour and a half to buy a present for Tiffany.

"What do girls like? What should I buy?" Daniel was talking out loud panicking.

"Pizza. Everyone likes pizza." Degdror said with a smile, happy that he helped.

Daniel looked at Degdror as if he was going to kill him, but then he remembered that near here was a shop that made big helium balloons and put things in them. He hurried to the shop before it closed thinking what to put in the balloon when he saw a shop with plush toys. He remembered that Tiffany liked giraffes so he went in, bought a plush giraffe toy and headed to the balloon shop. At the balloon shop, he chose a Happy Birthday balloon, they put the giraffe toy inside and he left.

Happy with his gif idea he headed to the birthday party. Tiffany greeted him and was overjoyed with the gift. "I didn't think you remembered I like giraffes. Aww, it's so cute. Thank you." She said.

"It's good you didn't go with the pizza." Degdror said.

"Do you by any chance have duct tape?" Daniel asked.

"I do. It's in the kitchen. Why?" Tiffany asked confused.

"Just asking." Daniel said and looked at Degdror frowningly.

Degdror saw that the other evil spirits were hanging out at one of the tables so he left and joined them.

Daniel sat on an outdoor sofa, happy that Degdror was occupied, enjoying the silence. Tiffany sat next to him with both of her spirits with her.
"So, tomorrow is your eighteenth birthday. What do you think? Who will your subconscious mind choose?" Daniel asked and looked at her spirits. The good one was combing her hair while the evil one was messing it up. He saw them arguing and at that moment he missed the arguments between Degdror and Akriel.

"I don't know. I don't want to lose any one of them. They are my best friends. I wish they could both stay with me. I think my heart will break tomorrow when one of them will be gone." Tiffany said.

"Yea, my heart broke when they took Akriel from me." Daniel said.

"Will they give you a new good spirit? I mean they have to otherwise your subconscious mind can't choose." Tiffany said.

"I don't know. I think I'm going to be stuck with Degdror. But, we'll see, there are still four months to my birthday." Daniel said.

As they were talking Daniel saw Degdror do his victory dance, with the fireworks, a few times and saw him standing with his arms crossed, sulking, wearing a Dunce hat. Daniel knew that Degdror was also missing his friend Akriel and he was happy that, at least for a while, he had a distraction.

Time flew by quickly. Daniel stopped trying to teach Degdror how to give good advice or do anything that was good. Two weeks before his birthday Daniel started panicking. The spirit distribution center still didn't give him a good spirit. He took out the card again and said the word on the card "Okabiah."

"Spirit distribution center. How may I help you?" Daniel heard the same woman's voice.

"Hi. I'm Daniel Ray. My good spirit Akriel was taken almost six months ago and I didn't receive a new good spirit. My eighteenth birthday is in two weeks. Can you check the status of my case?" Daniel asked.

"Just a second hun." The woman said and started typing.

"Hmmm... We still have no good spirits available that are compatible with you. Did you say your eighteenth birthday is in two weeks?" The woman asked.

"Yes, I did." Daniel replied.

"Uff... I will rush this up to the top. Don't you worry. Your good spirit will be given to you before your birthday. Thank you for calling." The woman said and the voice disappeared.

"If you don't get a good spirit I can be your good spirit." Degdror said.

"How, you are red, have horns and a tail. Good spirits are white, have white robes, yellow hair and some of them have wings. You don't look the part." Daniel said.

"But I could. Look!" Degdror said and changed the color of his skin to white. He took a white handkerchief and wrapped it around himself. "Ha? How do I look?" he asked.

"You still have horns, the tail and you don't have hair." Daniel said.

"I can hide y tail beneath my robe, but my horns are a problem. Hmmm... I know! I'll hide them with an afro!" Degdror said with a smile, hid his tail under his robe and grew a yellow afro on top of his head.

Daniel started laughing uncontrollably. He fell on the bed, holding his stomach, laughing so hard that tears were starting to form in the corners of his eyes.

"What? What's so funny?" Degdror asked.

"Look in the mirror." Daniel managed to say and continued to laugh.

Degdror flew towards the mirror and when he saw himself, he started laughing so hard that he fell to the floor.

After a few minutes, they both stopped laughing. Daniel sat up on the bed and Degdror stood up straightening his robe. Daniel looked at Degdror and started laughing again.

Chapter 3: The choice

Two days before his eighteenth birthday Daniel woke up and saw a good spirit hovering above him.

"Hi, I'm Miniel. It's nice to meet you." The good spirit said.

"Hi, Miniel. I'm Daniel." Daniel said and Degdror flew right into his face, gripping it tightly. Degdror turned his head towards Miniel, stuck out his snake-like tongue at her and hissed. "And this is Degdror." Daniel said with an irritated voice, grabbed Degdror, and put him on the bed.
"I'm so glad you are here Miniel. What type of good spirit are you?" Daniel asked.

"Well... I'm a good luck good spirit." Miniel said.

"Why did you hesitate? I know hundreds of people who would give anything to have a good luck spirit. I know I would." Daniel asked.
"I'm just eighteen years old." Miniel said.

"Oh...  That means that your first human didn't choose you as a companion." Daniel said.

"Yeah..." Miniel said.

"Don't get discouraged, you're still young and have a lot to learn. Being a spirit is not easy, just look at Degdror." Daniel said.
"What's wrong with me?" Degdror asked confused.

"Everything." Daniel said.

Miniel laughed and said. "I hope that I'll have a friendship like yours someday."

"We are not friends, he is a pest that won't stop following me." Daniel said.

Degdror snuck under the blanket and bit Daniel's leg. "Ouch! Stop that!" Daniel cried out in pain and quiet laughter could be heard under the blanket.

"You see! He's a maniac. Please give me good luck so that he gets lost somewhere in the forest. Please." Daniel said.

"I heard that! I'll bite you again." Degdror, still under the blanket, threatened Daniel.

"Don't make me get the duct tape!" Daniel yelled.

Degdror flew out from under the blanket and sat on the desk. He turned his back towards them, crossed his arms, murmured something and sulked.

"Can I go see your house and talk to your parent's spirits?" Miniel asked.

"Yeah, they are both older good spirits. Go talk to them, maybe they can give you some advice or tips and tell you about the challenges they had as good spirits." Daniel said.

"That's a good idea." Miniel said and flew away.

Daniel looked at Degdror and asked. "Why are you sulking? What's wrong in your head now?"

"Nothin." Degdror said quietly.

"Let's skip the sulking part today. I'm not in the mood. Tell me what's wrong." Daniel said.

Degdror turned his head towards Daniel and said frowningly. "You said you'd rather have a good luck spirit than me."

"When did I say that?" Daniel asked confused.

You said you would give anything to have a good luck spirit and that includes me too. You would choose a spirit you don't know over me, just because it brings you luck." Degdror said angrily.

"I didn't mean it like that. And by the way, it's not me who chooses it's my subconsciousness." Daniel said.

"I don't care about your subconsciousness. You said that you wanted a good spirit." Degdror said angrily and flew out of the room.
"Me and my big mouth. I really messed this situation up." Daniel said aloud.

The next day Daniel celebrated his eighteenth birthday. The day after tomorrow he will wake up and one of his spirits will be gone. He invited a lot of people and got many presents. By tradition, at ten o'clock, the bet was started. Daniel's best friend Peter stood in the center of the back yard and put two bowls on a table in front of him. Behind one bowl was a paper with the word GOOD written on it and behind the other, a paper with the word EVIL written on it.

People attending the party wrote their names on pieces of paper and put them in bowls they wanted. They placed their bets on which spirit will the person celebrating their birthday get. The bowl with the losers stayed with the person, who was celebrating the birthday, and each day that person took one name from the bowl. The person, whose name was pulled out from the bowl, had to do anything that the person, who was celebrating the birthday, says for a whole day.

Daniel was entertaining the guests and saw Miniel talking with other good spirits. Being a new good spirit must have been tough. Daniel was hoping that Miniel was having fun. He looked around searching for Degdror. He couldn't see him in the group of other evil spirits, which was odd. Degdror was always the heart of the party but now he wasn't here. Daniel excused himself and went to search for Degdror. He found him lying on his stomach, on a stone wall and poked him with a finger to see if he was still alive.

"Go away." Degdror said.

"You ok?" Daniel asked.

"I said go away." Degdror said.

"Come on, come to the party and celebrate. You love parties." Daniel said.

"I have nothing to celebrate. I drank a whole bottle of whiskey and this is the only position where I don't feel sick." Degdror said.

"Now I'm hurt. You don't want to celebrate my birthday. What kind of a friend are you?" Daniel asked angrily.

"A drunk one." Degdror said and burped.

"You didn't even get me a gift. You don't care about me at all." Daniel said.

"I got you a gift." Degdror said.

"So, where is it?" Daniel asked.

"I drank it." Degdror said.

"You are unbelievable." Daniel said, grabbed him by his shoulders and started to pick him up.

"No! That's, really not a good idea." Degdror said and as Daniel lifted him, he started to throw up almost the whole bottle of whiskey.

"Yuck!" Daniel said with a disgusted look on his face.

Degdror looked at Daniel, still drunk, and said. "Happy birthday! Here's your gift."

Daniel threw Degdror into the ice bucket to sober him up.

"You maniac! I'll bit your ear off!" Degdror yelled.

"That sobered you up really quickly." Daniel said with a smirk.

They had fun for the rest of the night and at half-past eleven everyone was gone. Daniel took a shower and went to bed. He talked to Degdror and Miniel, said goodbye to both of them, because he didn't know who he will see in the morning, and went to sleep.

Daniel woke up in the morning and lay on his back on the bed. He still had his eyes closed because he was afraid to open them, he was afraid to know which spirit stayed with him. A few moments later, he felt a familiar shape slam against his face and grab it and hug it tightly.
"I knew that deep down you loved me." Degdror said.

Daniel sighed and yelled. "Mom! We're going to need more duct tape!"